Biography of George H. Benton, Miami, Dade County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 139, 1923.

BENTON, M. D., GEORGE H.  A specialist whose reputation is based on service of genuine 
distinction in the field of mental and nervous diseases, Doctor BENTON has had his home in 
Miami since 1912, though for three years and until recently he was a captain in the army and 
public health service, with duties at various Government hospitals in the North and South.

Doctor BENTON is a native of Chicago, Illinois where he was born in 1868, son of JOHN S. and 
SARAH (SHUTE) BENTON.  His father was a native of Western New York, and his grandfather was 
a cousin to the distinguished Senator THOMAS H. BENTON of Missouri.  GEORGE H. BENTON was 
reared and educated in Chicago, attending the public schools of that city.  In 1893 he 
graduated from the Chicago College of Pharmacy, and was a pharmacist for several years.  
While thus engaged he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago, now the 
University of Illinois, graduating M. D. in 1899.  For two years Doctor BENTON practiced 
as a physician in Buffalo, New York.  From the start he specialized in mental and nervous 
diseases, and for two years after leaving Buffalo he was at Atlantic City as physician in 
an institute for the treatment of these diseases.  Following that he was a psychiatric 
specialist in a large institution in New York until 1906, when he established at Chester, 
West Virginia, a private hospital for the treatment of mental and nervous diseases.

In 1912 Doctor BENTON came to Miami, and that city has since been his home.  Here he continued 
his work in neuro-psychiatric diseases, and his specialty has provided a practice fully equal 
to his time and energy.

Early in 1918 Doctor BENTON was called into service in the United States Army, at first 
with the rank of lieutenant and later as captain.  While the war was in progress he was 
assigned to duty in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington in the treatment of returned 
soldiers from Europe who had become mentally deranged.  The first of June, 1919, he was 
transferred to the United States Public Health Service, and for 2 ½ years was in the War 
Risk Insurance Bureau (neuro-psychiatric section).  When the first hospital for the treatment 
of neuro-psychiatric patients was opened at Waukesha, Wisconsin, by the War Department, 
Captain BENTON was transferred to that place, subsequently being transferred to a similar 
hospital at Gulfport, Mississippi, on August 1, 1921, and assigned to duty in instruction 
of young medical graduates who were to take up neuro-psychiatric practice in the Government 
Hospital.

Doctor BENTON tendered his resignation during 1921, and finally, in January, 1922 pending 
the acceptance of his resignation, he returned to Miami on leave of absence, and resumed 
his private practice in that city, with home at Coconut Grove.  While a specialist Doctor 
BENTON's work covers a really wider field than the practice of medicine itself.  For many 
years he has given it deep study and has derived a wide knowledge of the composition of 
modern society and of human conduct and the deep seated complexities and operations of the 
human mind.  Particularly was his experience in the army of great value to him in broadening 
his range of knowledge of mental and nervous diseases.  He is the author of a number of 
monographs and other contributions to medical journals.  Several of these have been reprinted 
in book form.  One is entitled "War Neurosis and Allied Conditions in Ex-Service Men", 
published in the Journal of the American Medical Association July 30, 1921.  Another is 
"Some Evidences of Inadaptability in Ex-Service Psycho-Neurotics", read before the annual 
convention of the Southern Medical Association at Hot Springs in November, 1921.

Doctor BENTON is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations, the 
Southern Medical Associations, and the American Congress on Internal Medicine.  He is a 
Fellow of the American Medical Association of the section devoted to the study of alcohol 
and other narcotics.

Doctor BENTON married Miss ANNIE ELSOM, of Toronto, Canada.  She is a native of England.  
They have a daughter, LUCILLE, born in 1909.